A Meet-Cute, of Sorts
by hannahsoapy
Summary: Yeah, Darcy was just gonna blame this one solidly on Thor.


A/N: This is sort of a prequel-fic for 'Intergalactic Adeventures', and it comes after 'Light Years From Home', although you don't have to have read either of those, I guess. I wanted to give the TaserTricks in there a little more backstory, but those two fics are strictly Peter-centered, so this is a little standalone thing.

Hope you all enjoy!

* * *

Darcy went to answer the door with her taser in hand. They very, very rarely had people come by unannounced, and the last time someone had, it had been the jack-booted government thugs and Agent iPod Thief.

She peeked through the peephole.

"What in the name of Mew-mew are _you_ doing here?" She demanded as she opened the door, eyeing Loki suspiciously. Sure, he'd fixed the universe, but that didn't tell her why he had any reason to be on their doorstep. (She did have to admit, however, that he was annoyingly good-looking for someone of questionable loyalties.)

"I am here to escort the Lady Jane," he replied, smiling innocently.

"You?" Darcy asked, dumbfounded. "We thought – well, I guess we didn't really know what Thor meant…"

"He meant me," Loki said, sounding suspiciously _not_ irritated by the fact that he'd been sent to fetch his brother's fiancée. "I am to bring Lady Jane, and whatever other equipment she desires to bring with her to New Asgard."

"New Asgard, that's hilarious, you just - you made yourselves a planet and all you could think to call it was New Asgard? Was that Thor's idea?" An answering twinkle in Loki's eye confirmed it. "Omg, that's so - wait, what about me?"

"You?" Loki raised his eyebrow.

"I'm going with, right? Jane needs me, or else she'll get stuck in a science vortex and miss her entire wedding. Didn't Thor mention me?"

"No, he has not spoken much of you," he said casually.

Oh no, this was not happening. Darcy was _not_ about to be left behind again.

"I'm sorry, I don't care what Thor has or hasn't said, I am going with Jane whether you like it or not. I made her swear she'd never go off-planet without me again, because the last time she did, she got a freaking Infinity Stone in her body that nearly killed her. I'm going to your fancy new planet, and don't think I won't fight you on it. I'm not scared of you - I took your brother down with my taser once, don't think I won't use it on you, too! Although, Jane had already hit him with the Jeep, and he was sorta de-godified at the time, but whatever, I did it!"

Halfway through her rant, Loki's lips had started curling, and by the time she'd finished, he was full blown smirking at her. Darcy came to the sudden realization that she'd been played. She huffed.

"I was already going, wasn't I?"

He nodded.

"And Thor did mention me?"

"He did," Loki laughed, "but he called you his Lightning Sister, and when I asked him how exactly you had earned _that_ moniker, he promptly became mute on the subject."

"I probably would have just told you if you'd asked."

"Ah, but this was so much more amusing," he said with a wink.

"For you," Darcy said, rolling her eyes at him, but she opened the door the rest of the way and let him in.

"Jane! Our ride's here!" She called as she walked down the hallway, Loki following. "Did you - Jane! What the hell?"

The room she'd left Jane in, not even a few minutes ago, had somehow become a disaster zone. Printouts were scattered everywhere, and Jane was muttering to herself as she drew on her whiteboard.

"Shit," whispered Darcy. Jane had gone full Science! mode. There wasn't much hope now. "Janey," she wheedled. "It's time to go to New Asgard. Thor? Wedding? Remember that?"

"Huh?" Jane turned around, absentmindedly. "You!" she gasped, pointing at Loki.

"Me," smirked Loki.

"I don't know whether to slap you again or thank you," Jane glared at him.

"Again?" Darcy asked in surprise.

"Yes, it was particularly well executed blow," Loki said, rubbing his jaw as if remembering the pain.

"Ooooookay," said Darcy, grabbing Jane's arms, "We're going to make sure our suitcases are all packed. You can get all Janey's equipment on the ship, right?"

She didn't wait for an answer, just firmly guided Jane back to her room, where two suitcases lay open, mostly filled. Everything else had already been packed and was in boxes, out with the instruments, not that Jane had a whole lot else, anyway, and Darcy had been packed for days already.

"You just left the god of mischief alone with my sensitive instruments!" Jane hissed at her.

"I did," Darcy said smugly. "So, you'd better finish packing in here so you can go supervise him, huh?"

Those words galvanized Jane immediately, and Darcy left her scrambling around her room to make sure Loki wasn't actually doing anything to the machines.

He wasn't. She found him relaxing back in her favorite comfy office chair, feet propped up on the desk. The room was completely empty of stuff. Even her own bags, which had been stacked by the door, were gone.

"Did you use magic to move all that stuff?" asked Darcy, and he spun the chair around quickly, bringing his feet down guiltily.

"Seidr," he corrected her, a bit haughtily.

"Ok, cool, whatever it was, calm your tits." Loki looked at her incredulously. Woops. Guess he hadn't heard that Midgardian expression before. Darcy continued. "I was just gonna say, don't mention that to Jane, she's tetchy about her instruments."

"Then I must thank you for your warning," he said.

Darcy spoke without thinking. "Why is it, when Thor talks like that, he sounds like he came from a Ren Fair, but when you pull out the King James Version it's all smooth and-" a sly smirk was growing on Loki's face, and Darcy felt herself blushing "-uh, sophisticated?"

"He relies too much on the All-speak," he told her. "It is a good working, but it often misses the finer nuances of language."

"Does that mean you're actually speaking English right now?"

"Of course," Loki looked almost affronted. "I rarely have need of the All-speak; they do not call me Silver-tongue for nothing."

"Really?" Darcy was intrigued. "How many do you know? I mean, just on Earth there's, like, thousands."

"I lost count after a few hundreds," he said, casually waving a hand. "And Midgard is unusual in that regard. Most planets limit themselves to a dozen or so dialects."

"Well, we do like to make things complicated for ourselves," Darcy said cheerfully.

As if to prove her point, Jane emerged from her room, banging her suitcases against the wall as she struggled down the hallway with both of them at once.

"Allow me," Loki said, taking the suitcases from Jane, who was rather bewildered, but surrendered them. Darcy turned to watch him walk past, mostly because he was making the suitcases look like they were nothing at all, and totally not because he had a great backside.

He turned just before he reached the door and winked at her.

Jane looked her and raised her eyebrow. Darcy coughed and pretended she wasn't blushing.

Loki's voice floated back in through the open door. "I don't have all day, you know. You're not the only person I'm picking up today."

"Uh, yeah. What he said," Darcy said, jogging to the door to avoid Jane's persistent gaze. She heard Jane sigh in exasperation behind her.

"So, space ace," she said, bounding onto the spaceship. "Where we headed?"

Loki grinned.

"New York. Queens."


End file.
